Bottled water lies

Sacramento – Saying consumers should know what they’re drinking, environmentalists and the East Bay Municipal Utility District want bottled water to follow the same disclosure rules as tap water.

Makers of bottled water, which include Pepsi and Coca-Cola, say there is already plenty of disclosure about their water’s contents.

Advocates of two bills introduced in the Legislature say there isn’t nearly enough.

Sacramento – Saying

“People tout bottled water as this pure substance that’s trickling from clear mountain springs when, in fact, that may not be the case,” said Assemblywoman Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, author of one of the bills.

“When I pick up bottled water, I want to know it truly is something that’s good for me and better for me than drinking something else,” Corbett said.

Nearly 70 percent of Californians drink bottled water, which nationwide is a $6 billion industry. And by the end of this year, bottled water will have moved past milk, coffee and beer to become the second most popular beverage behind soft drinks, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp.

Bottled water’s popularity is fuelled in part by suspicions over the quality of tap water.

But Corbett and the backers of her bill say drink no way of knowing whether bottled water is better or worse.

Unlike tap water, bottled water is considered a food product and is subject to the same sanitation and preparation requirements as other food stuffs.

Although often advertising themselves as superior to tap water, bottlers are required in most cases only to meet the same quality standards as tap water.

Of the hundreds of contaminants state and federal regulators measure, bottled water is subject to a higher standard for only two, according to Randy Kanouse, EBMUD’s Sacramento lobbyist.

Bottlers don’t have to create a “consumer confidence” report each year like water agencies do. The reports tell customers what’s in their water. It details levels of contaminants, if any, like lead, aluminium, arsenic and salt.

Corbett’s bill, AB83, and a companion bill, SB50, by Sen. Byron Sher, D- Palo Alto, would impose the same reporting requirement on bottlers.

Bottling plants and water vending machines would be subject to annual inspections. Bottlers, vending machine owners and water haulers would pay an $86 fee to cover the costs of the inspections.

Bottlers say the bills aren’t needed.

“There are already comprehensive, stringent regulations in place at the federal level for quality labeling,” said Stephen Kay, a spokesman for the International Bottled Water Association. “These two proposed bills are proscriptive and redundant.”

Kay also cited a bill signed last year that requires bottlers to include an 800 number, Web site or address on their labels so consumers can get more information.

But Adrianna Quintero, a lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defence Council, says knowing the nutritional facts about water is not enough.

“It’s pointless to tell me water has zero calories and zero carbohydrates,” Quintero said. “Is there arsenic, nitrates, microbiologic contaminants, perchlorate? If these bottlers are doing the right thing, they shouldn’t have a problem telling me about it.”

The Food and Drug Administration needs to tightened its regulations on bottled water after a four-year study by the NRDC found that of 103 brands surveyed, one- third contained levels of contamination.

The NRDC found the contents of one bottle, labeled “Spring Water,” actually came from an industrial parking lot next to a hazardous waste site.

The FDA now insists that bottled water actually come from a spring if the bottler claims it does.

Bottled water sales have been growing at roughly 10 percent each year through the 1990s.

California is by far the biggest guzzler of bottled water, representing about 24 percent of the national market — twice the consumption level of any other state.

It’s attracted the interest of some of the country’s biggest beverage sellers like Pepsi, which created Aquafina bottled water. Coca-Cola created Dasani.

According to new research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology, a common bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is involved in some cases of respiratory inflammation that can lead to allergies, asthma or other serious respiratory conditions.

Here’s what an article published on the website of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology had to say

about the study:

“Could some cases of asthma actually be caused by an allergic reaction to a common environmental bacteria? New research findings published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that this idea may not be as far-fetched as it seems.

In a research report appearing in the February 2012 print issue, researchers show a link between common environmental bacteria and airway inflammation.

Specifically, their research suggests that some strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cause white blood cells to produce very high levels of histamine, which in turn leads to inflammation, a hallmark symptom of asthma.”

The article goes on to admit that modern medicine doesn’t really have a good handle on what causes such allergic reactions. But they hope this most recent study will shed some light on the possible role of bacteria such as Pseudomona aeruginosa in triggering such reactions:

“Despite advances in diagnosing and treating the symptoms of asthma and allergy, our understanding of the underlying initiating events remains elusive,” said John Wherry, Ph.D., Deputy Editor of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

“This report helps shed light on how an ‘everyday organism’ might trigger asthma and allergy from an immune cell type not normally thought to be involved in allergic disease.”

Colloidal Silver to the Rescue!

What the researchers are not yet talking about is the fact that numerous published clinical studies and reports have proven the Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenis highly susceptible to antimicrobial silver, including colloidal silver!

Indeed, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is the very same bacteria that tends to infect the skin of burn victims, leading to practically unstoppable skin infections that ultimately result in death.

But various forms of antimicrobial silver – including silver compounds such as dilute silver nitrate and silver sulfadiazine cream — have been used in hospital burn wards for decades to stop Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in their tracks.

Indeed, these silver-based products have saved literally tens of thousands of burn victims from suffering painful, agonizing deaths that would otherwise be caused by the Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogen!

Connecting the Dots

The fact that Cystic Fibrosis patients often suffer from Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections in their lungs is nothing new. Doctors have known of this for decades.

So why not also in respiratory conditions such as allergy and asthma?

Way back in Nov-Dec of 1955, a study titled “Bronchial Asthma Caused By Pseudomonas aeruginosa Diagnosed By Bronchoscopic Examination” was published in journal Annals of Allergy.

But in spite of that older study, until only recently the standard response from medical science has been “There is no known association between asthma and Pseudomonas aeruginosainfections.”

I’m quite surprised researchers have not connected the dots by now and realized that inflammatory lung conditions like Cystic Fibrosis, other lung conditions like C.O.P.D., and conditions of respiratory inflammation such as asthma and allergy might have a single common bacterial connection.

After all, it seems the more scientists look, the more they find pathogenic microorganisms behind ailments people have suffered from (often needlessly) for years.

Annoying Sinus Allergy Condition Resolved!

“…an employee had a severe (annoying to me) sinus condition that she had been fighting for about 3-4 years with antibiotics that would work for a while then come back.

She had it so bad she actually had a Family Medical Leave Act ‘sick leave’ to protect her attendance (reporting off from work), and from losing her job because of it.

I gave her some info on colloidal silver in general and she ended up trying some (pouring some into her nasal cavities).

After a week or two her condition is all but gone, with just a few ‘allergy flare ups’ which are nothing compared to how miserable she was and annoying to us with her constant snorting/blowing her nose.”

Bottled water NOT within the safe range

The municipal water sources of the Walmart’s Sam’s Choice and Giant’s Acadia bottled waters were identified through contact with Walmart representatives, their bottled water manufacturer, and city/utility officials; or from the label (Giant). Data on the levels of disinfection byproducts (total trihalomethanes or TTHMs) in these municipal water sources were obtained from Notla Water Authority in Blairsville, Georgia; Las Vegas Valley Water District; and Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission. These data were from tap water tests carried out in 2007, which the water utilities disclosed to their customers in an annual report. For every utility the range of values from lowest to the highest represents the concentrations of TTHMs that were found in the tap water over the course of the year. Notla Water Authority provided a single value for TTHMs, not a range.

The rest ended up in landfills, incinerators, and as trash on land and in streams, rivers, and oceans.

This study did not focus on the environmental impacts of bottled water, but they are striking and have been well publicized. Of the 36 billion bottles sold in 2006, only a fifth were recycled (Doss 2008). The rest ended up in landfills, incinerators, and as trash on land and in streams, rivers, and oceans. Water bottle production in the U.S. uses 1.5 million barrels of oil per every year, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors’ resolution passed in 2007, enough energy to power 250,000 homes or fuel 100,000 cars for a year (US Mayors 2007). As oil prices are continuing to skyrocket, the direct and indirect costs of making and shipping and landfilling the water bottles continue to rise as well (Gashler 2008, Hauter 2008).

Extracting water for bottling places a strain on rivers, streams, and community drinking water supplies as well. When the water is not bottled from a municipal supply, companies instead draw it from groundwater supplies, rivers, springs or streams. This “water mining,” as it is called, can remove substantial amounts of water that otherwise would have contributed to community water supplies or to the natural flow of streams and rivers (Boldt-Van Rooy 2003, Hyndman 2007, ECONorthwest, 2007).

Recommendations

Currently there is a double standard where tap water suppliers provide information to consumers on contaminants, filtration techniques, and source water; bottled water companies do not. This double standard must be eliminated immediately; Bottled water should conform to the same right-to-know standards as tap water.

To bring bottled water up to the standards of tap water we recommend:

Full disclosure of all test results for all contaminants. This must be done in a way that is readily available to the public.

Disclosure of all treatment techniques used to purify the water, and:

Clear and specific disclosure of the name and location of the source water.

To ensure that public health and the environment are protected, we recommend:

Federal, state, and local policymakers must strengthen protections for rivers, streams, and groundwater that serve as America’s drinking water sources. Even though it is not necessarily any healthier, some Americans turn to bottled water in part because they distrust the quality of their tap water. And sometimes this is for good reason. Some drinking water (tap and bottled) is grossly polluted at its source – in rivers, streams, and underground aquifers fouled by decades of wastes that generations of political and business leaders have dismissed, ignored, and left for others to solve. A 2005 EWG study found nearly 300 contaminants in drinking water all across the country. Source water protection programs must be improved, implemented, and enforced nationwide (EWG 2005b). The environmental impacts associated with bottled water production and distribution aggravate the nation’s water quality problems rather than contributing to their solution.

Consumers should drink filtered tap water instead of bottled water. Americans pay an average of two-tenths of a cent per gallon to drink water from the tap. A carbon filter at the tap or in a pitcher costs a manageable $0.31 per gallon (12 times lower than the typical cost of bottled water), and removes many of the contaminants found in public tap water supplies.2 A whole-house carbon filter strips out chemicals not only from drinking water, but also from water used in the shower, clothes washer and dishwasher where they can volatilize into the air for families to breathe in. For an average four-person household, the cost for this system is about $0.25 per person per day.3 A single gallon of bottled water costs 15 times this amount.

EWG’s study has revealed that bottled water can contain complex mixtures of industrial chemicals never tested for safety, and may be no cleaner than tap water. Given some bottled water company’s failure to adhere to the industry’s own purity standards, Americans cannot take the quality of bottled water for granted. Indeed, test results like those presented in this study may give many Americans reason enough to reconsider their habit of purchasing bottled water and turn back to the tap.

This article was published a number of years ago and seems to present a reasonable discussion about colloidal silver, its safety and efficacy. The sad truth is that this kind of mis-information is designed to convince the reader that colloidal silver is dangerous. Nothing could be further from the truth, unless you own a Pharmaceutical company.

Colloidal silver is a suspension of submicroscopic metallic silver particles in a colloidal base. Long-term use of silver preparations can lead to argyria, a condition in which silver salts deposit in the skin, eyes, and internal organs, and the skin turns ashen-gray. Many cases of argyria occurred during the pre-antibiotic era when silver was a common ingredient in nosedrops. When the cause became apparent, doctors stopped recommending their use, and reputable manufacturers stopped producing them. The official drug guidebooks (United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary) have not listed colloidal silver products since 1975.

Reply;Colloidal silver manufacturing techniques have evolved to produce nano-sized silver particles which do not product argyria. Large particle colloidal silver stopped being manufactured commercially in the early 1970’s so this statement is irrelevant today.

Dubious Ads

In recent years, silver-containing products have been marketed with unsubstantiated claims that they are effective against AIDS, cancer, infectious diseases, parasites, chronic fatigue, acne, warts, hemorrhoids, enlarged prostate, and many other diseases and conditions. Some marketers claim that colloidal silver is effective against hundreds of diseases.

Our colloidal silver contains 99.99% pure silver particles suspended indefinitely in demineralized water that kills bacteria and viruses. It can be applied topically and/or absorbed into the blood stream sub-lingually (under the tongue), thereby avoiding the negative effects of traditional antibiotics that kill good bacteria in the lower digestive tract.

An all natural antibiotic alternative in the purest form available. The presence of colloidal silver near a virus, fungi, bacterium or any other single celled pathogen disables its oxygen-metabolism enzyme, its chemical lung, so to say. The pathogens suffocates and dies, and is cleared out of the body by the immune, lymphatic and elimination systems.

It is impossible for single-celled germs to mutate into silver-resistant forms, as happens with conventional antibiotics. Also, colloidal silver cannot interact or interfere with other medicines being taken. Colloidal silver is truly a safe, natural remedy for many of mankind’s ills. Colloidal silver can be taken indefinitely because the body does not develop a tolerance to it [1].

Reply;What individuals say about colloidal silver on the Internet or anywhere else is also irrelevant to this discussion. It is interesting to note that hundreds of prominent Universities across America actually AGREE with most of the claims here as a result of intense independent lab tests.

Seasilver International, a California-based multilevel company, had claimed that American are suffering from “silver deficiency.” Although silver is not an essential nutrient, product information posted on the company’s Web site several years ago stated:

The depletion of minerals in our soil has left us deficient of silver, one of our most essential trace minerals, causing a drastic increase in immune system disorders in our society in the last decade. Research has taught us that all disease is allowed to manifest itself because of a weakened immune system. In over 20 years of worldwide research on Colloidal Silver, numerous interviews with government agencies, health care practitioners and their patients, no other nutrient, herb or drug (prescription or over-the-counter) is as safe and effective against all known forms of unfriendly virus, bacteria, and fungus. Additionally, while it is generally known that most antibiotics kill only perhaps 6 or 7 different disease organisms, reports have shown that Colloidal Silver has been used successfully in the treatment of over 650 diseases! Furthermore, strains of disease organisms fail to develop in the presence of Colloidal Silver. Colloidal Silver’s greatest attribute is its unique ability to function as a superior second immune system in the body! [2]

Reply;The claim of 650 disease being cured came from a study conducted at UCLA in California that proved that colloidal silver is highly effective.

The amount of silver suspended in solution varied from product to product and would gradually decrease over time.

Only five products actually showed antibacterial activity in a laboratory test. To perform the test, she prepared a culture plate with Staphylococcus aureas bacteria, which can cause infections in humans. She then placed a drop from each product on the plate and used disks of two common antibiotics as controls. After eight hours of incubation, she found that bacterial growth had been inhibited around the antibiotics and four of the products.

Of course, the fact that a product inhibits bacteria in a laboratory culture doesn’t mean it is effective (or safe) in the human body. In fact, products that kill bacteria in the laboratory would be more likely to cause argyria because they contain more silver ions that are free to deposit in the user’s skin.

Reply; Who is this investigator and how is any of this information substantiated? No proof here.

FDA laboratory studies have found that the amount of silver in some product samples has varied from 15.2% to 124% of the amount listed on the product labels. The amount of silver required to produce argyria is unknown.

Reply;NutraSilver is tested in FDA-certified labs to be 3,600 PPM without any contaminants. It is not possible to comment on every colloidal silver mistake made.

However, the FDA has concluded that the risk of using silver products exceeds any unsubstantiated benefit [3]. So far, eleven cases of argyria related to silver products have been reported:

A 56-year-old man who had sold and used colloidal silver for three years, developed blue/gray discoloration of his fingernails accompanied by a very high blood level of silver [4].

Reply;It is NOT POSSIBLE to get argyria after only three years of use unless this person added large amounts of salt or chlorides to make their own colloidal silver.

A married couple who had three years of daily consumption of a drink prepared by administering an electrolytic charge to a bowl of water that contained a silver bar [5].

Another couple had been taking a silver-containing “dietary supplement” prescribed by a naturopath [5].

A mentally ill man who had been drinking silver-containing herbal tea for about 10 months [5].

Stan Jones, Montana’s Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, who reportedly started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear that Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics. He made his own concoction by electrically two silver wires in a glass of water [6].

Reply;Mr. Jones made his own concoction of colloidal silver with salt included. He DID NOT take colloidal silver, he took silver COMPOUNDS which is not colloidal silver.

Two men, ages 63 and 76, developed argyria after a year of product use inspired by Internet claims [7].

A 16-year-old boy developed blue-gray pigmentation of his entire body after ingesting a silver-containing dietary supplement for a year. The product, packaged so that it was identical to bottled water was touted as a preventive for everyday infections [8].

A 58-year-old man who treated a presumed kidney infection with a home-brewed colloidal solution 12 times a day for 4 days developed argyria about 4 weeks later [9].

A 38-year-old man developed argyria after ingesting approximately 16 ounces of 450 ppm colloidal silver three times a day for 10 months to treat his arthritis and other conditions. He made the solution with a simple battery-operated chamber that leached silver from pure silver wire. He had obtained the plans from information on the Internet [10]. The photograph to the right shows how his skin color compares to that of normal skin.

Reply;Again, Quackwatch does not present the real facts; these people made their own CS and used salt to product silver COMPOUNDS, not colloidal silver.

Enforcement Actions

Between October 1993 and September 1994, the FDA issued warning letters to five colloidal silver marketers:

Higher Education Library Publications (H.E.L.P.), of Springfield, Utah, was ordered to stop claiming that its colloidal silver product was effective as a natural antibiotic and might be effective against cancer, genito-urinary diseases, tuberculosis, and AIDS.

Nutrition, Inc., of Arvada, Colorado, was ordered to stop stating or implying that its Silvicidal, when administered orally or intravenously, was nontoxic, FDA-approved, and was a broad-spectrum antibiotic that killed bacteria and all virus and fungal infections. In addition, it was falsely claimed to be effective against a long list of specific diseases.

Reseau International of Cincinnati, Ohio was ordered to stop claiming that its colloidal silver product was a “natural antibiotic and anti-inflammatory immune system stimulant” and that it was effective against cancer, staph, strep, influenza, general body infections, inflammation, impaired immune system, fungus toxicity, tonsillitis, Meniere’s symptoms, whooping cough, shingles, syphilis, cholera, and malaria. The labeling also stated that colloidal silver could cause major growth stimulation of human tissues and can regenerate

Silverado Inc., of Bountiful, Utah, was warned to stop making false claims that its colloidal silver product was effective as an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-fungal agent and that it could stimulate the immune system.

Unic, of Carmichael, California, was ordered to stop claiming that its colloidal silver product was effective against many diseases and could heal burn-damaged tissue without scarring.

Reply; let’s get real clear here; the objections of the FDA are completely centered on the words used to inform the public about the real benefits of CS, not colloidal silver. Colloidal silver manufactures are prohibited by FDA regulations from making any claims whatsoever, even if they are true and irrefutable.

In October 1996, the FDA proposed to ban the use of colloidal silver or silver salts in over-the-counter products [11].

Reply;Again Quackwatch gets their facts totally wrong. CAN YOU GO TO A Health Food store and buy colloidal silver today? Yes, of course! So how is it that QW says colloidal silver is banned?

A Final Rule banning such use was issued on August 17, 1999 and became effective September 16th. The rule applies to any nonprescription colloidal silver or silver salt product claimed to be effective in preventing or treating any disease [12]. Silver products can still be sold as “dietary supplements” provided that no health claims are made for them. During 2000, the FDA issued warnings to more than 20 companies whose Web sites were making illegal therapeutic claims for colloidal silver products.

In 2000, the Federal Court of Australia banned Vital Earth Company Pty Limited and its director Darryl John Jones from falsely representing that the colloidal silver produced by their “Vital Silver 3000 Zapper,” “Vital Silver 2000 Automatic” and “Vital Silver 2000”:

Can kill all disease-causing bacteria, fungi and virus within six minutes of contact

Has no harmful side effects; that colloidal silver could be used as an antibiotic for all the acquired diseases of active AIDS

Is effective with more than 650 different pathogenic bacteria and virus types

Has been used successfully against diseases including AIDS, cholera, diabetes, leprosy, leukemia, lupus, skin cancer, syphilis and whooping cough.

The company was also ordered to pay AUS$9000 in costs and to provide refunds [13].

In 2001, the FTC obtained consent agreements with two companies:

Robert C. Spencer and Lisa M. Spencer, doing business as Aaron Company (Palm Bay, Florida). Colloidal silver has been medically proven to kill over 650 disease-causing organisms in the body and is effective in curing diseases ranging from cancer and multiple sclerosis to HIV/AIDS [14].

In 2002, the FTC obtained a consent agreement with Kris Pletschke, doing business as Raw Health, agreed to stop making unsubstantiated claims that its colloidal silver product could treat or cure 650 different diseases; eliminate all pathogens in the human body in six minutes or less; and is medically proven to kill every destructive bacterial, viral, and fungal organism in the body, including anthrax, Ebola, Hanta, and flesh-eating bacteria [15].

In 2002, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration amended its rules so that water-treatment products containing substances like colloidal silver for which therapeutic claims are made must meet the requirements of medicines included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. This means that such products can no longer be legally marketed without proof that they are safe and effective for their intended purpose. The amendment was based on clnclusions that:

There is little evidence to support therapeutic claims made for colloidal silver products;

The risk to consumers of silver toxicity outweighs the value of trying an unsubstantiated treatment, and bacterial resistance to silver can occur

Efforts should be made to curb the illegal availability of colloidal silver products, which is a significant public health issue [16].

Reply;All of these mentions center around what people can say, not about colloidal silver is or how it performs. If you wish to see the truth about colloidal silver in FDA-certified independent lab test, demonstrate that NutraSilver kills pathogens in-vitro quickly, safely and without the horrible side effects of mico-toxins (antibiotics).

The argument is weak, unsubstantiated and designed specifically to to support the Pharmaceutical companies efforts to convince you to use their antibiotics instead of a harmless, benign natural mineral.

For the best colloidal silver to ensure the health of you and your family, try NutraSilver and experience the incredible healing that you deserve.

“I have this dreaded disease called Morgellons; I could feel these glass like fibers in my throat and in my nose/sinuses.

My throat began bleeding as well as my nose. I did my research on the net.

To see if there were any cures / treatment. I discovered NutraSilver. I ordered some right away, by the time my order arrived my air way and sinuses were already beginning to close up with these fibers.

I was coughing and caging, it was terrible. I was beginning to panic. So when my order arrived I couldn’t open it fast enough. I put the drops in some bottled water I purchased gargled and drank it down. I felt the fibers

Wow! I’m back to normal life again!

loosen in my throat almost right away. I had also introduced NutraSilver in my nose and sinuses. One treatment started to clear my nasal passages. At first I started to swallow those loosened fibers way back in my throat but stopped swallowing and quickly began coughing them up and spitting them out instead. I kept this routine up until after a few days my throat and nasal passages cleared up. The only thing left was my lungs; for I kept coughing fibers up out of my lungs. It seems the NutraSilver was helping my immune system because I began feeling better as well. The crawling underneath my skin had all but stopped. I didn’t have the open soars with fibers growing out, my problem is mostly internal. I had some red welts / blotches on my left arm, it is the only thing I have left at this time, but clearing my lungs and throat was a life saver. To be able to breathe clean fresh air again and feeling so much better is heaven sent. It’s my personal believe that if I can stop any re-infection that perhaps NutraSilver can keep this disease so well under control it would be like not having the disease at all.